Week 47: forced taper, improved CF and statistics

What I did:

I hurt my wrist (TFCC) on the right hand, so now my left hand has a lumbrical injury and my right a TFCC injury. I was planning on taking it easy, but I had to take it even easier than that. I did one hangboard routine at my critical force for aerobic endurance, tried bouldering once (but it didn't go well, 6C and up all proved to be too hard), and I did retested my critical force to see if my aerobic endurance improved.

I also re-did the critical force test from the strengthclimbing website. My new score: 411.2 N... it was 357.9 N just a few weeks ago! The critical force endurance pyramid training definitely worked, because an improved of 5.5 kg is HUGE! My critical force as a percentage of my bodyweight went from 48.6% to 53.7%.

Tomorrow, I leave for Chulilla, Spain! I hope this improvement in critical force helped me prepare for the long routes they have over there. 

I also tried to summarize some statistics of this whole year:

• Total hours of training: 533 hours
• Aerobic endurance: 106 hours
• Strength: 60 hours
• Fitness (PT): 53 hours
• Tactical: 68 hours
• Technique: 27 hours
• Mental: 21 hours
• Other: 198 hours
• Whippers taken: 155
• Meters climbed on rock: 4.335m
• Aerobic meters climbed (ARC): 5.107m

Reflecting:  

My body feels like it's falling apart... not much I can do about it now. I will just have to be super strategic with my approach to the 8a, to prevent unnecessary aggravation of the injuries while also doing what needs to be done to make progress. 

Looking back at the whole year, it looks like I averaged around 11 hours of training a week... This might not seem like much, but it was a stressful year. Stressful because of my hips, work, and the fact that sport climbing still scares me. I've spent so many hours doing something that stresses me out, that I don't think my body had enough time to recover. I've had some stress related health issues all year (psoriasis, low immune system, and my digestive track slowed down to a halt), but I didn't realise what caused it until now. I guess all those weekends (leaving Thursday evening, returning Sunday night) really added up in terms of fatigue and stress. I should've taken a month off around the summer, instead of doubling down on Hermann Buhl. Oh well, now I know!
 

What will I do next time:

I'm off to Spain, not sure when I can update this blog again. The plan is to take a look at vejiga vibratoria and los veteranos, both in Chulilla and good candidates for my first 8a. I'll have to see which one suits me most, given my current state.

I'll take a look at the routes, to get an impression of the climb, the conditions and the approach (rough terrain can hurt my hips). After this, I'll try to go bolt to bolt and do all the moves on one or both of the climbs. Then it's all about finding rest positions, easier ways to do the moves and then start making links. Then I'll try to make it even easier using tactics such as extending quick draws, adding tick marks, or using a knee pad. Hopefully I can do all of this in the first 2 weeks, so that I still have 2 weeks to send... it's a tight schedule, but I think I have a shot!

I'm SUPER excited about this trip, this is what I've been working towards all year. I made a lot of sacrifices, but win or lose, I'm just happy to be privileged enough to take on a crazy, ambitious project like this. And it will be nice to be in the sun, too ;)

Statistics:

Climbed 0 meters on real rock.

Climbed 0 meters of aerobic endurance laps (while doing movement drills).

Taken 0 falls while committing to the next move.